Geelong Grammar loses its third principal in a decade

July 16 2003By Farrah TomazinEducation Reporter

Picture: JOE ARMAOContracts for private school principals generally run for about five years, but many stay for much longer.

One of Victoria's leading private schools, Geelong Grammar, has lost its third principal in less than a decade. Nicholas Sampson yesterday became the latest principal to leave the school in favour of a prestigious overseas posting.

Mr Sampson, who came to Geelong from England in November 2000, said he was breaking his five-year contract and returning to his homeland with his wife, partly because of unforeseen family reasons. He will become the head of England's Marlborough College from September next year.

His predecessor, Lister Hannah, left the school in 1999 to help run an international boarding school in Thailand, while the previous principal, John Lewis, resigned in 1994 to become the head of England's elite Eton College.

Mr Sampson said his term was shorter than he would have liked, and the decision to leave had been difficult.

He defended the school's turnover of principals, describing the trend as a reflection of Geelong Grammar's global standing. "This school opens doors that others don't," he said.

Contracts for private school principals generally run for about five years, but many stay for much longer. Scotch College principal Gordon Donaldson has been head of his school for 20 years. Melbourne Girls Grammar principal Christine Briggs has been school leader for about eight years, and Paul Sheahan has been headmaster at Melbourne Grammar for seven years.

Victorian Independent Education Union secretary Tony Keenan yesterday agreed that Mr Sampson's reign was shorter than several of his counterparts, but added: "He has been a very good appointment and a very good principal."

School council chairman John McInnes said the school was saddened by the move. He said an executive search consultant had been appointed to help the council find a new principal. Candidates will be sought locally and overseas.

Mr Sampson will remain at the school until July next year. His greatest achievements, he said, included restructuring the school's Glamorgan campus, in Toorak, and moving away from "top-down leadership to a team-based approach".

But the 148-year-old school - which once had Rupert Murdoch, Kerry Packer and Prince Charles as students - was still "widely misunderstood" by the public, he said.

"It has a radical streak running through its soul... It's not the closed icon of preserved privilege that is sometimes painted."